Thread: US admirals criticize China over Hong Kong port calls

US admirals criticize China over Hong Kong port calls


Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON - Two top US military leaders criticized China Tuesday for blocking port visits to Hong Kong last week by a US aircraft carrier as well as two minesweepers seeking refuge from a storm.

Admiral Timothy Keating, the commander of US forces in the Pacific, said the Chinese actions were "perplexing, troublesome" and raised questions about Beijing's intentions.

"It is not, in our view, conduct that is indicative of a country who understands its obligations as a responsible nation," he told reporters in a video conference from his headquarters in Hawaii.

It came about two weeks after a visit to Beijing by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates who spoke to Chinese leaders about increasing military-to-military contacts to prevent misunderstandings and miscalculation.

Military relations between the two countries have been strained by US suspicions over a Chinese military buildup and Beijing's objections to US arms sales to Taiwan.

Hundreds of families of US sailors had flown to Hong Kong last week for the Thanksgiving weekend to meet the USS Kitty Hawk, when China abruptly and without explanation denied the aircraft carrier and its escorts permission to make a port call, officials said.

The Chinese government agreed a day later to allow the Kitty Hawk enter the port "out of humanitarian consideration," but Keating said that by then the carrier had reversed course and was headed back to Japan.

Admiral Gary Roughead, the chief of US naval operations, said he was even more bothered by China's refusal to allow two small US minesweepers to enter Hong Kong last week to avoid a tropical storm and refuel.

"As someone who has been going to sea all my life, if there is one tenet we observe it's when somebody's in need, we provide, and we sort it out later. That to me was more bothersome," Roughead told reporters here.

He said the navy sent a tanker ship to refuel the minesweepers, the USS Patriot and the USS Guardian, which then proceeded to their homeport in Sasebo, Japan.

He called China's actions "surprising and unhelpful."

Roughead said the Chinese have given no reason for the action. He said denying US navy ships port calls at Hong Kong was unusual although not unprecedented.

Keating said the incident with the minesweepers was "very unusual."

"Those two minesweepers were engaged in an operation, not against China, but out in international water, and a storm blew up and they needed to get into a place of refuge. And you know, Hong Kong's nearby and it's a great place to go," he said.

"So, for the Chinese to have denied those two ships in particular, small though they may be, that is a different kettle of fish for us, and is in ways more disturbing, more perplexing than the denial for the Kitty Hawk's port visit request," he said.

He said he intended to raise the issue during a visit he has requested to make to Beijing in mid January.

"That is behavior that we do not consider consonant with a nation who advocates a peaceful rise and harmonious relations," he said. "It gives us concern."

Keating said he also intended to raise China's development of certain weapons that have been used in exercises, as well as its acquisition of a blue water navy -- capable of operating across open oceans, certain air-to-air systems, and its views on weaponization of space.

"The sum of the weapons we see them developing indicate to us a little more aggressive strategic goal, perhaps, than would be easily understood on our part if it is only to protect those things that are theirs," he said.

Roughead and Keating both said the incident with the Kitty Hawk and the minesweepers demonstrated the need for greater contact between the two navies.

"That is one of the reasons why I think we need to continue down the path of the mil-to-mil engagements so that we can get some sense, some intent, what motivations are in things like this," Roughead said.

Keating said the United States has invited the Chinese military to take part in some basic exercises, such as search and rescue, but have been rebuffed so far.

"This is going to be a long process, in our view. We are cautiously optimistic that we'll be able to work our way around some of these aggravations, if you will," he said.

They said the US Navy had given no thought to bypassing Hong Kong in the future.

"Hong Kong remains a very welcoming place for our sailors to be when they get there," Roughead said. "And it remains one of the world's great cities where sailors for centuries have gone."